The
Venerable Dharma Master Tao Yuan was born in 1899 in Hunan. He buried his
mother when he was nine. When the relatives who raised him died when he
was twenty, he was deeply grieved and understood the impermanence of all
conditioned things. He went quickly to P'u Ching Temple where the Master
Lung Pin shaved his head. He received the complete precepts of the Bhiksu
when he was twenty-four from Vinaya Master Chiao Ch’ing at Kuei Yuan
Temple in Hupei, and devoted the next few years to investigation of the
Tripitaka and work at his teacher’s temple.

When he was twenty-eight he went to study with the Venerable
Master Tse Hang, and during the next few years he attended upon the
Master; among his many undertakings there was the establishment of a
Pure Land Bodhimandala. In the following years he studied with many
famous Masters including T’ai Hsu, Yuan Ying, Yin Kuang and others. He
traveled with the Elder Master Pai Sheng to Pao Tung Temple where he
went into seclusion for three years, and later went on a pilgrimage to
P’u T’ou and Chiu Hua Mountains, the bodhimandalas of Avalokitesvara
and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattvas. At the Venerable Master Tse Hang’s
request he held positions in institutions of learning and when he was
thirty-nine became Abbot of Tusita Temple.

When
he was fifty he left the mainland China and went to Taiwan where he
lectured Sutras and helped the Master Tse Hang set up his training
center. Shortly thereafter he decided to establish Hai Hui Temple, which
opened in 1952. He has explained many different Sutras over the past
years, and has held numerous summer sessions for the investigation of
the Buddhadharma at Hai Hui Temple. He has traveled widely in Buddhist
nations, and visited the historic shrines of Sakyamuni. When he was
sixty-five he was made President of the Chinese Buddhist Association.

The Venerable Master Tao Yuan has served as an Elder at many
transmissions of the Great Precepts of the
Thousand Buddhas. On his seventieth birthday, the transmission of the
precepts was held at Hai Hui Temple. There he was Precept Master to many
disciples including the first Americans to be ordained in the orthodox
tradition of Buddhism, Dharma Masters Heng Ch'ien, Heng Ching, Heng Shou,
Heng Yin, and Heng Ch'ih, all of whom returned to America and are now
engaged in the first orthodox transmission of the precepts in Western
history.